The use of detention centers in the Dirty War, the period of state terrorism in Argentina between 1976 and 1983, caused immense fear for victims throughout the country. After being kidnapped and interrogated, the prisoners would be subjected to the harsh and overcrowded conditions of the various detention centers.[1] Once the kidnapped were forced into detention, they effectively disappeared, becoming los desaparecidos. While there was no standard for detention centers, all of them incorporated a torture room. Physical torture was combined with emotional torture, with prisoners humiliated and dehumanized by the hands of the leaders; prisoners also lost basic human rights, unable to talk, shower, eat, and sleep.
The detention centers were notorious for mass murders to remove evidence of the torture that had transpired. At the end of the Dirty War and a change in government, prisoners were released on the street, blindfolded, with the torturers' identities kept a secret.
See main article: Clandestine detention center (Argentina). Argentina hosted over 520 clandestine detention centers during the course Dirty War.[2] There was no standard for the location, torture methods, or leadership of detention centers, but they all operated on the purpose of political opposition, punishing prisoners suspected to be involved in socialism or other forms of political dissent. Little information is known about the true nature of the centers during their operation, due to the mass murder of inmates to maintain secrecy.
The Navy Petty-Officers School (Spanish: La Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada, ESMA), was located in the heart of Buenos Aires, approximately two blocks from the 1978 World Cup Stadium. By the time it was shut down, over 5000 people had been tortured there. Only 150 victims had survived the center at the end of the Dirty War. The torture center split families immediately upon their arrival, murdering the mothers as quickly as possible. From there, victims would be moved to the basement, where most of the torture occurred, to have their pictures taken. Intense interrogations and torture plans made on an individual basis would ensue. In the present-day, the ESMA is used as a memorial for the human rights violations during the war.
Serving as a site where socialists were tortured for opposing the Argentinian regime, Club Atlético housed up to 1,500 victims at its peak, despite having a maximum capacity of around 200. Similar to the ESMA, the detention center used its basement as a torture chamber. Club Atlético formed part of a larger network of covert operations that contributed to the detention, torture, and extermination of accused dissenters.
Olimpo detention center was located in Floresta. The building had a capacity of 150 but housed 500 people at its peak. The operators used the operation room as the torture site to mock the victims. It is specifically known for its horrific interrogation methods of those accused of being associated with a rival political position.
The Virrey Cerallos, in the neighborhood of Monserrat, was known for its 'efficient' torture methods in a garage-like building. The center's operations were unusually public, showing how Argentinian officials were able to violate human rights at the time.
Located in the garage of a building, where torture was conducted by military members of both Argentina and Uruguay. It involved multiple South American nations in Operation Condor. Fear was used to create an environment where the prisoner would have to admit to all political dissent they had committed. This resulted in many false confessions of political opposition to avoid being murdered.
Unlike other detention centers, Garaje Azopardo used forced labour and made victims illegally transmit passports to friends of the Argentinian government. The Garage has been accused of only giving victims one meal a day.
Beginning as early as 1976, people suspected of being involved in political opposition to the Argentinian regime were kidnapped from homes and public places and brought to detention centers. Once these prisoners were brought to the respective camp, methods varied towards the type and severity of the torture. A New York Times article written on October 4, 1976, shares the experience of a victim who was blindfolded, hit, and forced to be nude.[3] These initial conditions were meant to scare the victims into revealing socialist secrets. This was followed with a process of interrogation and more intrusive torture methods. Accounts of sexual abuse, cigarette burns, and electric shocks were common during these eight years of victimization.[4] Methods as extreme as throwing prisoners out of airplanes were employed to terrify victims witnessing the executions.[5]
As more political opponents were captured and tortured, there was no government opposition to the human rights violations that were transpiring. Most victims and their families remained silent to avoid further persecution. However, there was a movement called The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo (Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo) that began in 1977, a year after the beginning of the Dirty War.[6] These mothers marched along the Argentinian government, participating in nonviolent protests to fight for the return of their children. Unlike the tangible torture that the kidnapped felt, the pain of the mothers in this movement was expressed through their actions.[7] In many ways, this can be seen as a form of torture, the torture that las madres could not have their beloved children back in their lives. Some mothers would protest for the rest of their lives, refusing to give up on their child's memory.
The United States, through its covert CIA and other intelligence agencies, has declassified certain documents that prove their knowledge of Operation Condor during the 1970s. Operation Condor is an umbrella operation of the CIA, in which six Latin American countries banded together to remove all potential political opponents in the Southern Cone. The Dirty War connects as a specific event to the larger Operation Condor.[8]
In a conversation between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and many of his colleagues, one of them argues that the Argentinian junta was overdoing the control it had over its citizens. Kissinger remarks that the treatment and policy of detention centers are, in fact, good for United States interests while also stating that this junta will need "a little encouragement from [the United States]" to pursue its efforts.[9]
Kissinger spoke openly to the leaders of Operation Condor and supported their efforts; he believed that "the quicker you succeed, the better."[10] Kissinger shows the tolerance of the United States regarding the pain and torture of other people in other nations held both inside and outside the detention centers. He has also been described as giving the "green light" to the torturers. Many of the leaders of America during this time had a similar train of thought.
Most of the American efforts in Argentina at the time dealt with the economy, largely ignoring the issues on the ground level. Between the lack of jobs and abundant refugees flooding into Argentina, America believed its duty was to control and maintain the balance of the economy. There was little recognition of the treatment of Dirty War victims, as it was left to the side to deal with the "real, pressing issues" of the time in the opinion of the United States government.[11]
In supporting the Argentine regime, the US remained silent in the face of human rights violations. The US government published a list of American people who were either dead or disappeared in 1978.[12] However, no major American opposition movements followed this revelation. A year later, the US sent the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to Argentina to investigate the impact of human rights abuses on the nation as a whole. By the time the Commission arrived in 1979, the US had decreed that terrorism was not an issue in this area of the world.[13]
Kissinger consistently commented on the Dirty War without acting to change the situation. The US Embassy in Argentina confirmed that 80-90% of the clandestine detention centers were destroyed by 1979 when the IACHR traveled to Argentina. Two embassy staff remarked that this progress was satisfactory because most of the camps had been removed.[14] Yet, the knowledge that most of the camps were no longer functioning raises the question of where the victims of these centers went. A large percentage of the victims that were once "housed" in the destroyed detention centers were confirmed to be disappeared, dead, or transferred to the small percentage of camps which remained in operation.